Astronaut Chris Williams shows off a “strong man” pose 260 miles above Earth during a break in work to repair the International Space Station’s robot arm. Image: NASA
Two NASA astronauts floating outside the International Space Station carried out a bit of orbital surgery Tuesday, successfully replacing a broken 200-pound “wrist” joint near the end of the lab’s 58-foot-long robot arm.
“That is a good install, you guys. I know that was tough. Wonderful work,” Canadian astronaut Jenni Gibbons called up from mission control toward the end of the seven-hour 20-minute excursion.
On May 27, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston noticed one of the Canadian-built arm’s seven joints was drawing more current than expected and not moving properly.
After a detailed review of telemetry, NASA managers and experts with the Canadian Space Agency, which supplied the station arm, concluded the joint had failed and needed to be replaced with a spare, one of two mounted on an external stowage platform.
